国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

we traversed we came only in two places upon insignificant fragments of pottery, too scant even to
indicate a regular shepherd's station.

Ancient
high road
along
Kuruk-
daryā.

The importance of this riverine belt lay solely in its providing a practicable and very direct
line for the western portion of the ancient Chinese high road connecting Tun-huang with the
oases north of the Tārīm. In this respect it may be compared with the riverine belt of the lower
Khotan river and the facilities that it offers for the trade route connecting Khotan with Ak-su
and Kuchā. In order to trace the position of such ancient roadside stations as had once been
maintained in this riverine belt before the Lou-lan route was abandoned, a prolonged and very
close search would be needed. The difficulty about water would allow this to be carried out only
during the depth of winter, when ice is available at Yārdang-bulak. Those stations were probably
placed close to the river banks for the sake of easy access to water and constructed of wattle and
timber or perhaps of mere rush walls. They were bound to decay rapidly on ground subject to
occasional inundation, or to be buried under the deposits of silt and drift-sand accumulating along
the main river-bed. Such archaeologically favourable conditions as once irrigated and subsequently
abandoned areas offer in this region for the preservation of remains of dwellings, even when isolated,
were here conspicuously absent. As a striking illustration of a similarly rapid disappearance of
remains along the Khotan river, I may mention that of the Sangars maintained along it during
Yāqūb Bēg's régime, and for a time after, I found it impossible to trace any relics at more than one
or two places, though their positions were still well remembered by my guides.

LIST OF OBJECTS FROM GRAVES OF BURIAL-GROUNDS L.S. AND L.T.

OBJECTS EXCAVATED IN GRAVES OF BURIAL-GROUND L.S.

L.S. 02. Mass of hair and wool, dark brown and
yellow.

L.S. 1. 01. Fr. of woollen fabric, terra-cotta ; coarse yarn,
warp perished ; and piece of twisted woollen and grass
cord. Fabric, gr. M. 3″ ; cord length 3½″.

L.S. 1. 02. Fr. of bronze tube ; straight, badly corroded.
Length 1¼″, diam. 1″.

L.S. 2. 01. Bundle of twigs, long and fine, doubled twice
and bound round with another twig. Free ends projecting
but broken. Length 10″, diam. 1¼″. Pl. XXVI.

L.S. 2. 02. Wooden ladle. Deep round bowl, with straight
projecting handle cut in form in one piece. Fr. of edge
broken off but preserved ; no orn. Good condition.
Length of whole 10¼″ ; bowl, diam. 5″, depth 2¼″. Pl. XXVI.

L.S. 2. 03. Basket-work strainer or cover ; parabolic.
Centre formed of seven stakes—three inside, at right angles
to four outside ; the four bound together in centre by
wrap-turning or 'paring', before the three are placed
below them. The two sets are then joined by two rounds
of close paring. Extra stakes are then introduced and the
paring is continued, but with gradually increasing width
between the rounds, to form an open texture. Number
of rounds of 'paring' is fourteen. Border thickened and
bound with rather clumsy lapping. Stakes appear to be
stems of some climber and paring probably of the same.
Well made and preserved. Diam. of mouth 5¼″, depth 2¼″.
Pl. XXVI.

L. S. 2. 04. Wooden bowl, elliptical ; no flattening for
base. Scored underneath with knife-cuts. Faint traces
of black paint or lacquer inside and out. Wood hard.
Mouth 7⅛″ × 5⅛″, depth 3⅛″, thickness (average) 1⁄16″.
Pl. XXVI.

L.S. 2. 05. Bone pin, from shroud. Round in section,
gently tapering, flattened and widened at one end for head ;
cf. shroud-pins, L.F. ii. 04 (Pl. XXIV). Length 3¼″, gr.
width ¼″. Pl. XXIV.

L.S. 2. 06. Fr. of goat's-hair fabric, coarse dark brown,
plain weave ; orn. with occasional inwoven thread of red
or yellow. Sand-encrusted. Gr. M. 3¼″.

L.S. 2. 07. Human skull ; adult. Rather pronounced ridge
extends from upper half of frontal bone backward along
top of head. Thick coating of brown dust lightly adhering
to L. side (probably hair) bears impression of coarse
canvas (?). All teeth perfect excepting L. upper wisdom,
probably recently fallen out ; crowns very evenly and
smoothly worn. Chin prominent and narrow.

L.S. 3. 01. Fr. of woollen face-cloth ; coarse plain weave
of strong yellowish wool, with twisted fringe of same, and
narrow ornamental line of brown wool inwoven along top
of fringe. For width of 1¼″, within fringed border, double
shoots of weft. Selvedge on one side. Well made. Marks
of brown discoloration. One corner tied up with goat's-hair
cord, containing small broken twigs (Ephedra) ; cf. L.Q. iii.
01, and L.F. 1. 03. Gr. M. 1′ 5″ × 9″. Pl. XXV.